Thursday, 31 July 2008

Next week brings the start of the Beijing Olympics, but for knitters it also means it's nearly time to kick off with projects for the Ravelympics! Ravelry has a rapidly growing olympic village which is hosting a version of the games for fibrecraft athletes. There are a whole host of events to participate in including the Afghan Marathon, Designers Discus, and the Laceweight Longjump, and loads of different teams to compete for.

The idea is that knitters cast on their ravelympics projects during the opening ceremony on Friday 8th August, and must finish by the time the flame goes out at the end of the games. I have been a little over-ambitious and have chosen two projects to enter, although I might not be able to finish both in the time. My main ravelympics project will be a shawl called Kevat, by Ziina. I'll be knitting it with Utiku merino possum yarn that Jane sent for my birthday. It's really really warm, my hands were feeling nice and toasty even after knitting a small swatch, and then I went to the website and discovered that it's the second warmest fibre on the planet apparently. Does anyone know what fibre wins the title of warmest?? Here's my 'training' for the project (which is permitted to be done before the opening ceremony), and an aftershot just to show you that I'm not cheating and I unwound it all!

As a bit of a side project, I'm hoping to have a go at a crochet scarf with Gedifra Chandra yarn - the same stuff that I made the hemlock ring blanket with. It's quite a bulky yarn, and I'm planning to make a scarf by crocheting 2 alternating types of flower joined together at the petals to form a chain. With a bit of luck the colour changes in the yarn will make each of the flowers look different.

Thursday, 17 July 2008

The last month has disappeared into a haze of cheese, steak and strawberries - I can't quite believe that Taste is all over so soon, but in other ways it seems like a hundred years since we started out in Edinburgh. I've been doing a fair bit of cooking, but have been totally useless at taking any pics so the blog has suffered. Sorry!

I did however bring home some lovely looking chillies that were left over, so I think it's time to make some more chilli jam. I'm also working my way through a new book: 'bread matters' by Andrew Whitley, so there will be lots of bread-related posts coming soon. My task for this week is to find somewhere in Dundee that sells fresh yeast. 24h bakery perhaps? hmm, they don't even sell bread...

One good thing on the knitting front is that I've FINALLY finished Oranjeanie (Keri Williams' Jeanie, from knitty winter 07/08). It's been a 6 month on and off kind of love/hate thing, and this project really suffered by me getting bored and starting lots of other things along the way, but here she is...

I never thought it would be such a slog when I embarked on this one, but I'm pleased with the final article. The slog is my fault for not being dedicated enough, the actual knitting time was not so great. I had an internet splurge on materials for a new project whilst separated from my stash in Birmingham - I'm making 'Iceland' from Rowan 42. Love the yarn (let's gloss over the price tag for now), v soft and hairy, love the leafy sideways pattern. It's going nice and quickly, I'm up to the split for the neck already.